Languages of Humanity
The Languages of Humanity refers to the several languages associated with Humans on Azeroth. While most races hold dialects, Humanity's separation from one another during their inception has resulted in said dialects wildly varying to the point of becoming new languages all together. All stem from the root language of Vrykul, though over time dialect from the originating Vrykul as well as other factors or exposure to other races has resulted in said languages taking root. The languages can be broken down into four major eras, the Abandonment of Humanity, the formation and rule of the Empire of Arathor, the Empire's Splintering, and the modern era. While language has developed in between said eras, those are the key hallmarks in which said languages flourished, died, or otherwise outshone in human history. Vrykul Before tackling the eras themselves, one must first look at the different vrykul whom came down to the northern Eastern Kingdoms. While one of these groups are far larger than the rest, there were still several splinter groups to be noted. Fjordic Vrykul - Alterac and Strom The Fjordic Vrykul are those servants of King Ymiron whom disobeyed his commands and sailed south with their children. These Vrykul established their first colonies along the shores of Hillsbrad, Arathi and Alterac. While there is evidence of Fjordic territories north towards Lordaeorn, it has become evident that said area was avoided due to another group of pre-existing Vrykul in the area; likely out of fear they were hunters sent by Ymiron to find them. The Fjordic Vrykul are responsible for one dialect, which would eventually evolve into the language known as Stromic (Language). Stromic, or as it would later be known as High Common, shares many relations with the language of Alteic, which is the language which developed within the Alterac Mountains. Due to the separation of the two groups of Fjordic Vrkyul, Alteic and Stromic developed independently of one another. Alteic, however, suffered the most during this period as the tribes of humanity that would form in the mountains remained isolated; where the Arathi tribes interacted frequently and prevented a serious language break. Frosthome Exiles - Gilneas Gilneas is unique in that the group that sailed south towards the Eastern Kingdoms appears to have come from a mixture of areas. Evidence has been found that they originated from the Storm Peaks en masse, though other clans appear to have come east from the Broken Isles. As a result, the natives of Gilneas spoke many different scattered languages, with only several winning out towards the end. The only remaining language of these people is Galui (Language), which is spoken by the Galuyn ethnic group. Following the introduction of the Empire of Arathor, many of these languages were effortlessly wiped out due to the fact that they were largely scattered or otherwise unorganized groups whose languages were already beginning to degrade. The Drust - Kul Tiras Kul Tiras is the most questionable. Not much is known of their original settlers, other than that very few people actually went south far enough to colonize the isles. The most prominent language during the early periods of human formation was that of Baradi (Language), which was spoken by the people of Tol Barad. What is most questionable about the formation of language on Kul Tiras is that of the Drust. A now long dead race, the Drust originally inhabited Kul Tiras, and what few humans were in the area were known to have learned this language. As time went on and the Drust were eventually wholesale slaughtered, Tirassi (Language) came about; a bastardization of Drust and Commonm, though Baradi remained independent of this development. Tyr's Followers - Lordaeron Tyr's Followers were the Vrykul whom departed with Tyr during his crusade to battle the followers of the Old Gods. These Vrykul did not bring any of the nascent humans with them, instead, they out survived their kin. As the vrykul whom fought alongside Tyr progressively began to die out, they took on humans that had wandered towards the north. Instructing them in the ways of Tyr and his glory, this exposure alongside early developments of the Light would begin the formations of one of the most religious countries in humanity's history, Lordaeron. Tyr's Followers spoke a language similar to that of the Fjordic Vrykul, though the mix of Tyr's Followers, which included Earthen and Mechagnomes as well as titanic watchers, caused the dialect to change slightly. As a result, by the Abandonment era, the language had shifted enough that it was notably different to others in the area. Abandonment of Humanity Era The era of the abandonment of Humanity saw the creation of the majority of the languages that would take root in nascent human history. This follows the death of the final Vrykul on the Eastern Kingdoms, and the resulting struggles humanity would face on its own without their parent protectors. Without the heralds of their past, Humanity began to diverge heavily from Vrykul culture over time, adapting to their surroundings which were nothing like Northrend in many cases. Gilneas - Scattered Languages and Galui During this period, the language known as Galui began to form in full, having taken over most of the southern half of Gilneas' dialects. Scattered dialects continued to exist along the northern half of what would become the kingdom, with the east and west a split of Galui, scattered languages, and otherwise unused territory; the lands that would become The Headlands being almost entirely unpopulated for a time before nascent petty kingdoms began to rise from the tribes that settled in the hills of Gilneas. These minor kingdoms would war with one another, each time one getting wiped out would spell the death of one dialect or another, though Galui remained firm in the south. Alterac - "Root Alteic" Root Alteic is a theoretical language, as no evidence has been found to support its origin. The people of the Alterac Mountains speak a tongue that is not dissimilar to that of the Arathi, which supports claim that the Vrykul whom landed in the region likely came north from Hillsbrad rather than head east like most others did to the Arathi Highlands. Perhaps out of a desire to retain some semblance of Northrendic lifestyle for their children, the Alteraci whom came about this decision split off into different tribes along the mountains. As time went on, these tribes became more and more secular, as fighting over resources became a prime issue. As a result, it is unknown where precisely the Vrykul established the original setting of Alterac, with some claiming it was in the west where Alterac City once stood, others claiming it was towards the east, near the Thondroril River. Either way, as the Alteraci began to squabble amongst themselves, their dialects progressively changed. Strom - Stromic Stromic, or as it would later come to be known as High Common, was the very first language of the Arathi Highlands. Having originated from the Arathi Highlands, Stromic became the name associated with the language at the time before the Empire; despite the fact that its name sake of Strom would not come into existence until Thoradin first banded all of the tribesmen of Arathi together. This is due to the fact that the original name for the language, if there even was one, has not been recorded; a common issue with most very early names for humanity. Its earliest mention of the name Stromic comes from the foundations of Strom, where it was claimed that the Stromic language was a unified voice of the people. This name did not last very long, even when it was in use, as Thoradin would later dictate its station as "Common", due to the fact that humanity's languages were splintered at the time of the unification of the empire. Stromic in its purest form has been retained as "High Common". Lordaeron - Tyrish By the time Tyr's final Vrykul followers had perished and humanity was all that remained in Tirisfal, Tyrish had come into being. The extended exposure to the Vrykul and full in-depth teachings that the rest of humanity did not have resulted in Tyrish being similar enough to be understood by other humans in bits in pieces, but markedly different in enough ways that translators were often needed when first interacting with the early Lordaeronians. Following the Empire of Arathor era and the death of Lordain, the leader of the nascent Lordaeronians, Tyrish's name began to follow the trend of the new name of the land, Lordaeron, thus transitioning into Lordaeronian. Kul Tiras - Unknown Languages and Baradi By the time of the abandonment era, Kul Tiras was mostly unchanged. Baradi had finalized itself, sharing similarities with Fjordic Vrykul languages, and the Drust had continued their interaction with what little humanity had been upon the island. As a result, Tirassi would not truly form until the era of Arathor, where Gilnean explorers came to the land and interacted with the Drust in much greater numbers. Empire of Arathor Era - Enforcement of Common With the advent of the Empire of Arathor, it became apparent that the necessity for a unifying language was needed otherwise, humanity's union would not last long. Deciding upon Stromic as the root language, Emperor Thoradin declared it to be called 'Common'. Common was the result of a slight mixture of the languages of other regions while keeping Stromic as the core. As a result, Common actually began to diverge it's self into several languages along the way. These were High Common, which was simply Stromic, Common, the new language of humanity, and Low Common, which was developed by Alteraci and Gilnean explorers whom were exposed to the Dwarves of Dun Morogh for extended periods of time. Gilneas - Common, Low Common and Galui The advent of Common in Gilneas was a massive change to the way the people of the region spoke. As Gilneas took on a huge amount of frontiersmen, the Empire's definition of what it meant to be Gilnean changed as these two subgroups intermingled to what would be the first steps of modern Gilneans, the mixing of the pagan natives and Arathorian men and women whom made the trek to the west. Common, as a result, swept the nation quickly, with many of the scattered languages of the clans and tribes being wiped out. Low Common took the place of these languages that were progressively being phased out, as Low Common was the result of interaction with the dwarves to the south as Gilneas and Alterac explored for the empire. Deemed as any form of Common that was intermingled with other dialect or language, Low Common branched into erroneously including the dying pagan languages alongside that of the dwarves. At the time, Galui survived due to the strong native population that had sweltered in the south, but under the wave language unification, Galui too dwindled outside of the place where the Galuyn people could be found. Alterac - High Alteic, West Alteic, Fjoric, Low Common The introduction of Common to Alterac was what caused the historical event known as the 'Splintering of Alteic', which was a linguistic catastrophy that just about erased a portion of Alteraci history due to conflicting dialect, writing styles, linguistics and ultimately even going as far as record burning to erase rival dialects. At the time of the splintering, it was theorized that Alteic had almost seven dialects that had spread across the mountains. By the time Common was introduced into the mountains, this caused a chain reaction effect that held disastrous results. While smaller regions were more willing to take on Common, lest they anger the Empire, larger regions held fast to their dialect and even went as far as to attempt to revitalize older parts of it. To further complicate matters, Common in Alterac never properly picked up. The exposure to the Dwarves in the south due to Alterac and Gilneas exploring the southern reaches of the continent in the name of the empire caused dwarven dialect to already become muddled into Alteraci society. Coupled with the compounding of dialects and languages competing in the same space, it was rare to find an Alteraci who was capable of speaking Common flawlessly. During this period, the people of Alterac warred against one another for territory on top of the situation; which was causing more and more history to be lost as the Alteraci engaged in destroying each other's history as a sign of disrespect. By the time the empire stabilized the region again, Alteic had splintered fully into several dialects, ontop of this, the dialect of Fjoric had come into record by now. While it is unknown exactly when Fjoric was developed, it is believed to have been isolated enough from the incident from Alteic to have continued existing by way of its people not engaging in the wars that were fought in the mainstay of Alterac. High Alteic was spoken by the eastern Alteraci, specifically those near and across the Thondroril River. They claimed they held the purest strain of Alteic that yet remained among their people. This was challenged directly by those who dwelled near what would become Alterac City, whom claimed much the same. Unlike the High Alteic dialect, however, the West Alteic dialect was more capable of fluently translating older texts and remnants of 'Root Alteic'. Regardless of this, however, the two dialects would remain a divisive feature of the area for generations. Strom/Dalaran - High Common, Common, Low Common By the edict of Thoradin came the advent of Common. Despite this, however, some remained deeply ingrained with the idea of holding onto what was once Stromic, now known as High Common. Common it's self was a dialect created by taking the most prevalent aspects of the other languages and mixing them together into Stromic to make a unifying language that would ultimately pave the way for one universal human language. As a result of this, Common it's self was quickly picked up by way of projects Thoradin put in place to increase literacy among early humanity's elite as well as to allow for record keeping to be unified under Imperial law. This still did not stop the upper aristocracy from keeping to High Common, and as a result many phrases that still exist into modern times can find their root from this insistence, such as Esarus thar no'Darador, which is an archaeic phrase meaning 'By blood and honor we serve', which was a common phrase of loyalty towards the Empire of Arathor. Low Common also came into existence due to the inability for Common to properly exist in regions that had been exposed to Dwarven language to the south or otherwise pre-existing languages which were going extinct. As a result, Low Common became especially prevalent among border areas. Areas such as Dalaran were, for a time, erroneously claimed to breed Low Common as well, but this was just found to be the intermingling of Thalassian following the Troll Wars, due to the fact that many of the Mages had picked up on Thalassian or at the least Thalassian phrases from their elven instructors. Lordaeron - Common, Lordaerin Lordaeron's introduction to Common was, perhaps, the cleanest introduction of the regions. As many from the heartlands of Arathor held summer homes or otherwise retainerships in the northern region, the area was usually kept to a standardized Common as the people were mostly secular. The lack of exposure to the dwarves as well as any real other languages beyond Tyrish also prevented Common from being degraded in the area. The intensive focus on literacy in the area, due to religious texts being deemed paramount, also aided with Common's spread to Lordaeron. If nothing else, this actually helped set the stage for what would eventually splinter the Empire, being that Lordaeron had begun to move ahead of the other provinces. Tyrish, however, had evolved since the time of the abandonment era. Lordaerin, as it was now called and named for the fallen general Lordain; a beloved leader by the people, had prospered religiously. Used as a holy language as Common took its place, Lordaerin was able to flourish in religiously fervent areas as the language used to most closely attune with the Light. While this practice would eventually fall out of favor, the whole hearted acceptance of separating the two for different uses was instrumental to the adoption of the dialect wholesale. Kul Tiras - Common, Baradi, Early Tirassi, Havrei By the time of the Empire and the eventual formation of Gilneas and its people, Kul Tiras began to be more properly explored by Arathor. Gilnean settlers landed upon the island and quickly absorbed whatever few people had made their home on the islands, with the Drust having been found to be in the way of expansion. Rather than peaceful interaction, the Drust assailed the encroaching humans and were utterly slaughtered. Their language, however, had become integrated into the populace, whom used it to aid with guarding naval trade secrets. The early formations of Tirassi arose from the bloodied remains of the Drust's slaughter as a result. Common was also quickly adopted by those whom settled Kul Tiras, as the necessity for a unified language was key for business with an empire that was known to hold many languages. Along this time, other smaller cultures were also absorbed into the branding of Kul Tiras, including the Baradi and the Havrei; which were a smaller mostly independent culture. Havrei had developed on its own independent of the Empire, though after Havre was annexed; the island mostly continued as it had just under the banner of the Empire. As a result of this, the adoption of Common came about peaceably and the Havreian people were capable of keeping their own dialect to themselves without much issue. Empire's Splintering Era The Empire of Arathor splintering apart incited much in the new kingdoms on what should and shouldn't be preserved. In some lands, that included reviving their own languages. Others, they attempted to emulate fallen Arathor by pushing their original doctrine of Common. Gilneas - Common, Low Common, Galui Alterac - Common, Low Common, Low Alteic, Fjoric Stromgarde/Dalaran/Stormwind - High Common, Common, Low Common Lordaeron - Common, Lordaeronian, Old Lordaeronian, Rostkammyr Kul Tiras - Common, Tirassi, Havrei Modern Era Humanity has stabilized since the splintering, and as a result, language has mostly stayed the same on this chart for hundreds of years. By now, Common is the most spoken language in the world, having won out over every other language in humanity as Thoradin intended. Gilneas - Common, Gilnean (Pseudo-Language), Low Common, Galui Alterac - Common, Alteic, Fjoric, Low Common Stromgarde/Dalaran/Stormwind - Common, High Common, Low Common, Thalassian (Dalaran), Rostkammyr (Stormwind) Lordaeron - Common, High Lordaeronian, Low Lordaeronian, Old Lordaeronian, Gutterspeak, Rostkammyr Kul Tiras - Common, Tirassi, Havrei, Baradi Category:Languages Category:Human